Keywords and various software programs: a very basic question

[neverds]

Hi--

I'm a newbie to DAM, and just trying to figure out how to do this (I've ordered the book!).  Anyway, I was trying to figure out if, for instance, you start using one software pkg to manage photos, and decide to switch to another, are the keywords transferable?  It seems to me that they should be, because they're in the IPTC data for the image, but I just want to make sure.

Thanks

[David Anderson]

A DAM application such as iView MediaPro or Extensis Portfolio, etc, stores keywords and other metadata in its database. However you can normally export such information to the image files themselves so that other applications can also access this data. The one exception is proprietary Raw files. With a few exceptions, DAM software is unable to embed metadata in such image formats. Even when software offers such an option there are many people who would advise caution about tampering with camera Raw files. As far as I am aware, none of the camera manufacturers have made their Raw file specifications available to facilitate such changes. There is therefore a risk of corrupting irreplaceable original images. Possibly a very small risk, but a risk nevertheless that some are not willing to make.

Metadata for Raw files is normally stored in XMP 'sidecar' files. If the sidecars are created outside any DAM application (typically in Adobe Bridge) then any sidecar-aware software, such as MediaPro, can access this metadata. However subsequent metadata additions within a DAM application might not be exportable back to the original sidecar without problems. Conversion to DNG files tends to resolve all such issues and DNGs are able to store metadata without the use of sidecars.

David